Landing in Iceland is a mindfuck. Keflavik, the airport, is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. After flying all night over the ocean, Iceland comes out of nowhere and greets you with two tiny buildings. I should have taken this as a warning. International flights are greeted warmly by customs ("How long are you staying? Okay, go through.") and then taking the passengers by bus to baggage claim. Unfortunately, our flight arrived a little after 6, and the next bus to the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland's "must sees" wasn't until 9:45. We decided to just go straight to Reykjavik and find our couch surfing hosts for the night. And so began our first day of no sleep.
Our hosts were really sweet. They lived a little bit out of the city, but the bus went pretty close and the bus driver helped us find our way. He is a native Icelander, and she is from Bulgaria. They were really nice- neither had to work that day, so they took us sight seeing.
First, we went downtown. They took us to a gigantic flea market that operates during the weekend only. One part was clothes, the other part was food. We tried dried salted herring that resembled jerky. It was pretty good. Icelanders like to eat it with butter on it.
Given that Iceland is an island and their main export used to be fish, one might expect the most popular restaurant there to be seafood. Nope! It is a hot dog stand. Naturally, we had to try one. They put two kinds of onions- raw and fried, and three different sauces on their hot dogs. One of these is simply called hot dog sauce. They were pretty good, but I still prefer Seattle's cream cheese and onions over Icelandic dogs!
The last thing we saw downtown was this huge topographic map of Iceland. It was done with layers of cardboard all on top of each other, and took four men over four years to complete- 17 man-years! It was easily ten feet by eight feet long, if not bigger. It was awesome to see all the places we were going to be going.
Our wonderful hosts then decided to take us out to see some of the cool sites close to Reykjavik to save us time the next day. I wish I could comment about the scenery on the way there, but almost as soon as we got in the car, I fell asleep. The waterfall they took us to, Gullfoss, was gorgeous. I'm not much of a waterfall person, but this one was pretty neat. The river does a couple of sharp bends right before crashing into a deep trench. Mist rises from the trench, so it looks like the water is just disappearing straight into the earth!
Next we went to see Geysir, the geyser for which all others are named- at least, according to the sign! It was raining and cold, but seeing hot water gush into the air is pretty awesome. We got a treat too- the geyser shot off twice in less than five minutes time. Apparently that doesn't happen very often.
I just couldn't keep my eyes open, and barely woke up for dinner. Our host had made us an incredible Bulgarian dish- great cabbage and potatoes. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down the recipe. I'd love to make it myself. Even after all my naps, I still fell asleep on the couch almost right after dinner. Our hosts were very sweet and understanding, and showed us to our room. I slept like a rock until 6 AM, when I awoke with a start. I cannot tell you the last time I woke up that early on my own, but it was quite a shock. I guess there's only so much sleeping my body can take.
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